Nevertheless it- is confessed that they have made use of independent and sometimes itinerant preachers in no wise ordained, out of pure necessity for want of Orthodox preachers and out of the same necessity Quakers have been admitted into offices of trust at Pensylvanja Avithout taking the Oaths and Justices of

PAPERS RELATING TO CHURCHES IN QUEENS COUNTY. 227

peace in the province of New York to perform the Office of matrimony (tho' both against the known laws. --

Tn the year 1702 came from England the Reverend Patrick Gordon to the Church at Jamaica who before lie could be inducted was snatched away by death from those people to their unspeakable loss which by a petition signed by upwards of fifty inhabitants to Ms then Excellency Lord Cornbury (that noble patron of the church here) they did sufficiently express & pray his Lordship to give such directions to the Rev^ M"" . . . . Vesey that they might have crjustant lectures amongst them until that loss shall be made up to them by her Majesty which would tend to the advancement of true religion and the best of Churches and the reconciling their unhappy differences, the which M"" Vesey willingly & faithfully performed till the year 1704 when the Revd Mr Urquhart was established & inducted in the said Church by the then Governor Lord Cornbury. But one M"" Hubbard an Independent Minister being then in possession of the parsonage house his Lordship ordered him to deliver up the same to M- Urquhart which accordingly was done quietly and peaceably without any force and w^as enjoyed peaceably by the said M"" Urquhart for several years and the Independents themselves seemed to rest satisfied so far that they unanimously at their own expence built themselves a Meeting house in the same town which they now use and enjoy --